Does anyone know how air combat works? It seems that some units get a chance to intercept more than once - maybe they get a chance until they successfully intercept? The only thing I've figured out is to amass a large number of fighters and bombers and send the fighters first. I like their speed/attack range (when combined with a Tank/Gunship army) and the ability to move around the map instantly.

Air combat mechanics do seem to be rather a mystery. One thing is for sure,they are not the same as regular combat. First clue: air combat does not show up in the combat log.

I think you are right: a unit such as Mech Infantry can only intercept once, but it gets a chance to intercept each air attack until it actually does intercept.

You definitely have the right idea: send in fighters first to beat down the patrolling enemy fighters, then bomb them back to the stone age. Make sure you keep plenty of fighters on patrol yourself: the AI loves to commmit suicide by sending waves of bombers, and will not stop even after getting ten shot down. Just add air combat to the list of things the AI does badly.

Yes, Bombers are the new artillery since the castration of ground artillery from civ3 to civ4.

I disband all my castrated artillery in civ4 once i have bombers. They are of no further use to me.... and even if i did keep any, they wont see any combat, since they will be too slow to engage any cities befor my tanks and bombers have already done all the work and moved on.

(I'm playing on Warlords--not BtS--so if this doesn't apply to BtS, I apologize)

Some more "how does this work with aircraft" questions:

(1) If an AI city under attack (or being considered for attack by you) has a few "aircraft interceptor" units--SAM Infantry (40% possible), Fighter circling (50%), Mech Infantry (30%)--say one of each, does each one get a chance to intercept the same Bomber (or Stealth Bomber) you send in to reduce cultural defenses? Or does just the "best" interceptor/defender get a chance? It seems to me if every one gets a chance at the same incoming aircraft, there's little chance of the first few planes getting through, right?

(2) Do ground units once they fail to intercept get another chance to intercept a subsequent incoming aircraft (bomber or fighter) until they are successful? (I believe that once the interceptors have made one interception per unit, they're done with for that turn...so multiple interceptions by a lone SAM Infantry or Mech Infantry garrisoned in a city--or one parked within one square of the city--shouldn't be possible, right?)

(3) How are the interception damage points/% assessed? Say a Stealth Bomber is attacking a city with a SAM Infantry (CG1, CG2), Mech Infantry (CG1, CG2, CG3) and a circling regular fighter in it, it may sustain anywhere from 4% to 70% (in one recent game) damage. How is this damage calculated? Is it based on unit-to-unit strength? Invading aircraft distance flown (which yields a high damage potential) having anything to do with damage %?

(4) Do Medic 1, Medic 2, etc. in the city where a damaged aircraft is based speed up the healing process, or are these Medic promotions only relevant to land-based units?

(5) Does the "50% chance of evasion" for a Stealth Bomber lower the odds of interception against (for example) a SAM Infantry to 20% (50% remaining chance x 40% interception possibility)? If not, how does the 50% evasion benefit get calculated in?

There's probably more that I'll wonder about, but I'd appeciate input on any/all of the above

Lost Soul 1

The mystery continues...

I do know that there's a limit to the amount of damage your aircraft can do Once the enemy units are damaged enough you will not be able to give an air strike order with that air unit.

Is there a way to start with promoted air units? Does Pentagon help?

(vanilla)

I'm pretty sure any anti air unit will stop after 1 interception.

The odds of an interception involving a number of anti air units is anyones guess! I have not observed any logical/consistent activity ingame to draw any conclusions on that one.

Good question about the medic heal rate affecting aircraft. Realistically speaking, medics units should only heal biological units and engineers should heal mechanical units. Since the engineers promotion is not ingame we will have to pretend the medic promotion is really an engineers promotion when applied to mechanical units and therefore should be able to repair aircraft. This is all just realistically speaking, what is the ingame reality, i do not know?

In vanilla game there are no aircraft promotions.

Mobile Artillery, my friend. Mobile Artillery. Until I get that, I upgrade tanks with collateral and use air power. Anyone know if Mobile Artillery can get Blitz promotion?

Don't know all the answers but do know, or believe:



(1) If an AI city under attack (or being considered for attack by you) has a few "aircraft interceptor" units--SAM Infantry (40% possible), Fighter circling (50%), Mech Infantry (30%)--say one of each, does each one get a chance to intercept the same Bomber (or Stealth Bomber) you send in to reduce cultural defenses? Or does just the "best" interceptor/defender get a chance? It seems to me if every one gets a chance at the same incoming aircraft, there's little chance of the first few planes getting through, right?

From experience, my guess is that only the "best chance" defender gets to try.


(2) Do ground units once they fail to intercept get another chance to intercept a subsequent incoming aircraft (bomber or fighter) until they are successful? (I believe that once the interceptors have made one interception per unit, they're done with for that turn...so multiple interceptions by a lone SAM Infantry or Mech Infantry garrisoned in a city--or one parked within one square of the city--shouldn't be possible, right?)

I agree: I think each ground-based defender gets only 1 successful intercept, but gets to keep trying if it fails.

(3) How are the interception damage points/% assessed? Say a Stealth Bomber is attacking a city with a SAM Infantry (CG1, CG2), Mech Infantry (CG1, CG2, CG3) and a circling regular fighter in it, it may sustain anywhere from 4% to 70% (in one recent game) damage. How is this damage calculated? Is it based on unit-to-unit strength? Invading aircraft distance flown (which yields a high damage potential) having anything to do with damage %?

It seems random, but strength determines the maximum damage possible, or at least weights it. I rarely see a stealth bomber shot down outright by any less than a jet fighter, and have even (once) seen a stealth bomber shoot down an already-damaged fighter (that was kewl)

(4) Do Medic 1, Medic 2, etc. in the city where a damaged aircraft is based speed up the healing process, or are these Medic promotions only relevant to land-based units?

This one I KNOW! Yes, Medic units speed healing of aircraft the same as for gound units

(5) Does the "50% chance of evasion" for a Stealth Bomber lower the odds of interception against (for example) a SAM Infantry to 20% (50% remaining chance x 40% interception possibility)? If not, how does the 50% evasion benefit get calculated in?

Lost Soul 1

That one i'm not sure of but from my experience your mechanism must be right. SAMs et al intercept Stealth Bombers fairly regularly, so the 50% evasion chance must be multiplicative. In my current game I am cranking out Combat 3/Ace Stealth Bombers (75% evasion chance) and they still get intercepted by SAMs and Mech Inf on occasion. Rarely (I want to say never) shot down by ground-based units tho, and sometimes ony "forced to abort" and not damaged at all.

Dubai Vol

Great answers..thanks!

Lost Soul 1

I just read mentioned in another thread that Bomber/Fighter Range is not based on movement distance. Can someone verify this?

Yes, Bombers are the new artillery since the castration of ground artillery from civ3 to civ4.


You mean the rebalancing. They were way overpowered in Civ 3.

However it works Stealth bombers fail to impress as they seem to fail to perform there mission even in tiles several squares away from a city. However with a tech advantage a mass bomber rush is just devastating as you can have a city decimated before your army even gets their. This tech advantage only really comes in easier difficulties...

A fighter in each city and your set.

I just read mentioned in another thread that Bomber/Fighter Range is not based on movement distance. Can someone verify this?

The "REBASE" mission does not consider the range of the unit re-basing. All other missions (recon, air strike, air bomb) DO have a tile limit equal to the range of the unit.

A paratrooper has a range of 5, cannot re-base, and has a movement of 1 such that it can move on the same turn as the paradrop mission (although it cannot attack immediately following a jump).

Look at this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=225927

where there's a discussion of cultural border "range". There is one post in there that suggests that aircraft use the same "range" as culture - in other words aircraft range does not equate to movement through squares. This would only be noticeable when your aircraft is attacking a city on the diagonal. I thought I saw this in a game once - where my bomber should have been able to reach a city via "movement" but couldn't bomb it. I'm playing vanilla.

I found another thread discussing city maintenance in which bomber range is mentioned as using the "1.5" rule. The first diagonal square costs 1 MP, the second diagonal square costs 2 MP, then 1 again followed by 2. So to bomb a city 4 diagonal spaces away actually costs 6 MP - a city 6 diagonal squares away costs 9 MP so is actually out of range of a bomber with range 8. I have not confirmed this but it does seem to bear out from what I've experienced. This is very important in determining where to base your aircraft.

awesome info!
now, as for interception range for fighters, is it half their range for other missions (scouting/bombing)? or was that in civ III?